Notts police “good” at keeping people safe and reducing crime

Nottinghamshire Police have welcomed a report praising its work to keep people safe and reduce crime.

The Peel: Police Legitimacy 2016 inspection gave the force an overall rating of “good”.

It said: “Nottinghamshire Police continues to ensure its workforce behaves ethically and lawfully, although there are gaps in its vetting processes to ensure designated posts are vetted to a specific standard.

“The force has an ethical culture and the workforce understands what serious corruption is and how to report it.”

The report outlined some areas of improvement for the force, which included improving how it demonstrates it has taken action to improve treatment of all the people it serves and how it communicates the action taken in response to issues identified by the workforce.

In December 2016, HMICFRS recommended that within six months all police forces in England and Wales should develop and begin to implement plans required to seek intelligence on potential abuse of position for a sexual purpose.

Mike Cunningham, who led the inspection, said: “When police officers and police staff abuse their position for a sexual purpose it has a devastating effect on the lives of victims, and corrodes trust and confidence in the police.

“It is of great importance that forces are prepared to seek intelligence on this type of corruption, and when they find it deal with it vigorously and decisively.”

“Following the recommendation in our 2016 report, 17 forces had made progress in developing and implementing plans.

“The majority still have significant work to do to address this critical issue. The importance of public trust in the police cannot be understated.”

HMICFRS will carry out a full inspection of each force’s plan next year.

Detective Superintendent Leona Scurr, head of Nottinghamshire Police’s professional standards directorate, said: “We are pleased the inspectorate has acknowledged our comprehensive plan in ensuring our workforce behaves ethically and lawfully and how well we tackle the abuse of authority for sexual gain.

“There has been a significant amount of work undertaken in Nottinghamshire to ensure this type of behaviour is swiftly identified and dealt with.

“Where there is still more to do we are dedicated to making progress and look forward to future inspections in order to demonstrate this.”